The Irony of Modern Catholic History: How the Church Rediscovered Itself and Challenged the Modern World to Reform

A powerful new interpretation of Catholicism's dramatic encounter with modernity, by one of America's leading intellectuals
Throughout much of the nineteenth century, both secular and Catholic leaders assumed that the Church and the modern world were locked in a battle to the death. The triumph of modernity would not only finish the Church as a consequential player in world history; it would also lead to the death of religious conviction. But today, the Catholic Church is far more vital and consequential than it was 150 years ago. Ironically, in confronting modernity, the Catholic Church rediscovered its evangelical essence. In the process, Catholicism developed intellectual tools capable of rescuing the imperiled modern project.
A richly rendered, deeply learned, and powerfully argued account of two centuries of profound change in the church and the world, The Irony of Modern Catholic History reveals how Catholicism offers twenty-first century essential truths for our survival and flourishing.

• Western Culture Today and Tomorrow: Addressing the Fundamental Issues
• Roman Encounters: The Unity of the Church and the Holy See's Responsibility for the Universal Church
• Christus Vincit: Christ's Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age
• The Day Is Now Far Spent
• Primal Screams: How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics
• Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Revealing the Jewish Roots of Christianity
• Grace in Season: The Riches of the Gospel in Seventy Sermons
• A Time to Die: Monks on the Threshold of Eternal Life
• The Decalogue Decoded: What You Never Learned about the Ten Commandments
• Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization